Right Place, Right Time
by All and Sundry
Summary: "We'll call this collateral." And that said, he went on his way. : AU. Currently rated M for language & possible future content.
1. Chapter 1

**U**m so yeah I had an idea for a polarship AU, thanks to tumblr, and here we are.

Due thanks goes to **Gweniveve Skyes **for gawking at this thing for me.

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><p><strong>. : Right Place, Right Time : .<strong>

**Chapter 1**

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><p>"I told you I do <em>not <em>want to deal with you right now." She couldn't get the words out right. Loud enough. Fast enough. "Do not give me this shit about you being a better parent."

The voice buzzing into the speaker was just as loud.

Watery eyes and a reddened nose.

A little face staring up at her.

The memory.

It dragged her under, colour and sound, then thrust her back to the surface again.

She cut him off, the sound of her voice fading out halfway through but coming back, syllables grating harshly. "Yeah who was there for everything? Who was there when she was crying? Asking if her fuck-up of a father hated her?"

In her ear was a scratchy click.

The phone clattered.

Her own shaking arms wove around her, useless in holding in the sob that tore from her chest, the giving out of her knees.

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><p>Everything shivered.<p>

Somewhere in the distance, a horn blared. The tracks outside clacked, loud and rhythmic under the weight of a rushing train.

With an audible push, she sat, grimacing when joints cracked in protest to her lean to collect pieces from the floor where she'd lay.

Yawning, she scratched at a numb spot on her head, tangles in blonde trying to trap her nails.

Past slow lashes, she stared in silence, piecing her phone back together slowly. When it lit up, she pressed it atop a shelf, heard the vibrations one after another. Texts. Like some child. Like it was still highschool.

She left the thing and rose, trudging to the kitchen.

On the counter, a little radio seemed to stare, wide speakers like eyes, and some far too cheerful melody pouring out.

It ended with a click of a button.

The faucet filled the silence with the soft plips of a slow leak.

Scowling at the curved silver set, she collected her phone and, ignoring messages, called the only contact labeled with profanity in place of a name.

She sighed loudly enough to drown out the crackling voice of the answering machine and did her best to drum up a pleasant tone. "It's Valentine calling from 301 again. There's still an issue with a leak… If there's a problem getting in contact with the building's repairman, I can contact them myself. Just let me know."

The screen dimmed.

Doubtful.

This was the third call in a week.

To her surprise, the phone soon lit up, profane placeholder there and a phone number. It was better than nothing. But it would have to wait.

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><p>Afternoon sunlight was warm on her face where knuckles weren't pressed into her cheek.<p>

Sounds of a hundred little voices stirred her from drowsy leaning on the car door. All from the nearby building. Colour flooded the front pathway. A rainbow of backpacks and jackets wrapped around little balls of energy.

One familiar shade of red beelined to her and she'd pushed open the door and wound around the car to intercept.

She was rewarded with a wide smile, bright eyes like her own staring up at her from under a mess of curls.

"How was school?"

In response was an enthusiastic nod.

Laughing, she mimicked, carrying the little figure in her arms around to back of the car.

"Amanda says it means good."

"Well this _Amanda_ is almost right. When you move your head like that it means yes," she said. "Got it?"

Her reply was yet another nod.

Leaning on a backseat, she buckled in the only passenger. "You know what? How about some ice cream?"

A cheer erupted.

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><p>"Oh but it's freezing outside!" the clerk declared as if shocked and leaned on the counter, smiling at the young face looking up at him. "You sure you want ice cream?"<p>

"Yes!" came a bright chirp.

"Alright, then what'll be Miss Emma?"

With a lot of pointing, she stared and stopped, not sure what to decide from the case full of colour-filled tubs in front of her.

The bells around the door handle jingled and a customer came to wait nearby.

Emma soon trotted off, pink spoon sticking out of what appeared to be a cup full of sprinkles. Mai stood alone at the counter, fishing her credit card out of her wallet.

It was a moment later that the clerk stood, tapping the bit of plastic against the register. Then he frowned and swiped the card through a second time. "Denied… Sorry."

She bristled.

"Was there another card you wanted me to try?"

Mai mouthed while heat flooded her face. And pressing against the counter, she spoke quietly. "Can you try it again?"

"Mommy." A little hand tugged at her skirt.

"Go sit down, okay?"

Where her daughter left, another body pressed in, arm bumping into hers.

"I got it," he told the clerk, depositing crumpled bills on the counter. "And ah…"

Mai glanced aside to see a young man next to her, scanning the black menu posted behind the counter. He flashed her a grin, something of a crooked one, and turned attention back to the waiting clerk.

"And a couple bottles a' pop if you don't mind."

"Sure thing," the clerk said, already plugging numbers into the register and smoothing out bills before Mai could quite process what was happening.

"Wait!" But she'd called too late, the man had already drifted away from the counter to the fridge elsewhere in the shop.

Rounding on the stranger, she set her hands on her hips, swallowing quickly as if to digest her surprise. "What are you playing at?"

He took one look at her and raised his hands in defence, expression suddenly sobering.

"What goes around comes around," he told her and dropped one hand, the other sliding into his blond hair. "I didn't do it so ya'd owe me."

In spite of the words, she continued to fix a narrowed gaze on him. He didn't _look_ like a con artist at least. He looked, well, average. Worn jeans. Shirt. Brown leather jacket with creases across the arms. Hints of a faded tattoo peeking out from under a sleeve pressed up one arm.

He raised a brow at her, still unsure what to make of her look. And her silence.

She let her hands fall from her hips. "I just don't expect things like that."

Ever.

"Thought ya' were gonna clock me for a second." He let out a nervous laugh and pressed his hands into his jeans' pockets.

As if considering, Mai glanced down at the hand wrapped around the end of her purse strap.

_And purple a face like that..?_

With a pair of quiet thuds, the clerk set down a couple of opened glass bottles. "Your change, Joe."

"Don't worry about it."

"Thanks." The man smiled and slid the bottles across the counter.

The stranger - apparently Joe? - took up one and started on his way out of the shop, weaving around a table or two.

"You forgot this other," Mai called.

Stopping, he shook his head. "Nah, it's yours."

The bells tied to the door handle jingled at his grasp.

But she had caught up before he walked out.

"At least give me your information so I can pay you back."

"It's a just few bucks."

"It's the principle."

If not a little pride.

He seemed to think it over, at one point fiddling with a bit of metal stuck through one ear.

"Ah'right," he finally decided. "You got a pen?"

Mai dug one out of her purse and offered it. She was about to search once more, for paper, when she found her hand taken into his warmer one.

He left a line of black digits across her skin and gestured with the pen.

"We'll call this collateral."

And that said, he went on his way.

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><p><strong>. : End 1 : .<strong>

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><p>Yeah I borrowed a line from Symbiotic, I do what I want… And I don't know what this is but let's continue shall we?<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

**I**'m not even sure how to explain myself for this chapter. A hefty chunk of blame falls upon**Gweniveve Skyes **who is now helping along with the progress of this AU!

I'd say enjoy but I'm not sure how you wouldn't so...

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><p><strong>. : Right Place, Right Time : .<strong>

**Chapter 2**

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><p>The late morning found her waving from the sidewalk.<p>

The bus lumbered away down the street and she watched until the large yellow shape disappeared around a corner.

A smile slipped away all too easily and she ran a hand through mussed up strands, the tangles catching her nails helping her mark the next task as finding a brush. And pulling her robe tighter around her hunched figure, she slid her arms into her sleeves and hurried up the stairs, into the building and her apartment.

The front door shut behind her as she wandered into the bedroom and left in the next moment, brush pulling through her hair as she trudged to the kitchen.

Empty plates clattered in the sink and the few utensils afterwards. She hesitated as to her empty coffee mug and ultimately set it aside, deciding to make a cup as opposed to washing it.

Leaving the brush on the counter, she turned on the faucet only for nothing to happen… Even the incessant drip had stopped. No amount of fiddling with it made water come from it and with a sigh she stooped to throw open the cabinet doors.

"Oh my god."

Last traces of sleep fled at the sight of water pouring from a very long split in a pipe… and it must have been for some time! The bottom of the cabinet was stained and a bright sheen sat there, just beginning to run out along a corner.

She lunged, a hand wrapping around the spilt and jerked it away just after with a cut across her palm for the effort.

Around her legs, containers of various shape, glass bottles and vases clattered and clinked brightly against one another and the floor.

The sight of a few knobs greeted her and she went for one, seizing the metal bit in her unblemished hand and turning it with an almighty wrench.

Today wasn't her day.

It broke at the end, handle and all, and a gout of water rushed out, another unwelcome fountain arching within her cabinets. Her very _wooden_ cabinets.

Cursing some more, she dropped the knob on the counter and found her phone. Frantic tapping away at it, she then lifted it to her ear and rattled off the moment she heard the tell-tale click of someone picking up on the other end of the line.

"Hi, yeah, I live in apartment 301. Can you please send someone as fast as possible?" she took a breath after rushing through every word, "the pipes burst."

A click sounded in her ear then the tone droned on, the sound of a line occupied by only one person...

A grumble in frustration, she threw her phone into the nearby chair, collected a towel, then raced to wrap it around the piping.

Someone knocked at the front door and she let go, her first thought going to the fact that she wasn't all that decent but it couldn't be helped.

"Whoa." A voice found her ears.

In a haste to get out from under the cabinet, she bumped her head and sent out yet another round of expletives. The stranger had barged in in apparent earnest for the request she'd been sure had gone ignored. Except...

This was no stranger but the young man from the day before.

He met her wide-eyed gaze with one of his own and then he was all action, crossing the floor in a few steps.

And where she shifted aside, he'd pressed in, jeans starting to darken around the knees as he knelt in the growing pool of water and set to work. A rather crucial part missing, he figured out soon, and leaned out from under the sink, immediately spotting it there on the counter.

"Ah hell," he complained, chest then heaving with a loud sigh as he rolled up his sleeves.

Like a bird with ruffled feathers, Mai's shoulders drew up. "I didn't mean to break it," she rushed, "I was _trying_ to turn off the water."

"Did a bang up job..." he said. Shaking his head, he moved back in, trying to lean out of the spray and failing.

From what she could tell - she had some trouble seeing around the large shoulder half blocking her view - he was after other knobs and bits under the sink.

He whistled after a moment and retreated long enough to flash a grin at her before disappearing under the sink again. "You _really_ did a number on this thing."

In the next moment said number had found an end. The rush of water slowly died as it appeared he'd turned the water off somehow.

Gripping the counter, he stood and seemed to remember himself then, a hand pinching soaked fabric from off his chest. It only stuck fast again just after, given how wet it was. And she couldn't help but notice… white fabric went translucent and the colour itself lent all too well to shadows… these fell in and around the little rises up from his belt into smooth, broader planes wide enough lay a palm across…

"Hey," he ventured, "you mind if I uh…" His forearms had crossed, hands already at the hem of his shirt.

She was a little slow in realising what he was asking, warmth daring to creep across her face when the unspoken words sank in one by one.

"Oh," she squeaked then cleared her throat. "I don't mind."

He pulled his shirt off and wrung it out. A little more water splattered to the puddle on the floor. The bunched fabric hit the counter with a slap and Mai couldn't bring herself to care that it was dripping water off the tile even then because, well, there he was… Bright droplets running lazy races down his skin…

"You gonna be okay?" he asked.

Her gaze snapped up to the dark one peering out between the strands stuck to his face, the one there above a cavalier grin, the whole of it setting her pulse off in an unwanted whirl.

"I mean…" he lifted his arms and crossed them behind his head all too slowly, light and shadow flicking across muscle rearranging… under what of the black marks she'd seen before and now were revealed more… shapes seemed to dart down his arms and spread… assumably around to his back into what likely made a very spacious tattoo... "I can give ya' a second if need be."

He…

Just…

Mai sucked in a breath and crossed her arms. There wasn't a thing she could do about her face, the blush, that was. All she knew was that it was completely and _entirely_ his fault.

"Just—" she'd started, loudly, into a sentence without clue where it was going, "just fix the damn sink."

His shoulders shook with a silent laugh but he managed to move a hand in mock salute. "Yes ma'am."

Freed, a set of tags jingled from their loop around his neck as he knelt and went back to work while Mai had decided to leave him to it.

"Oh my god," she whispered at her reflection in the mirror.

To think it had been the same young man. Joe wasn't it..?

The universe had a sense of humour apparently…

After a long breath, Mai flicked a wet strand off her face. Of course, her hair was a mess, a tangle here and there. They weren't as obvious with it being wet and all but she knew they were there. The prior day's soft black smudges around her eyes looked all too obvious…

It couldn't be _that _bad. He'd still joked - okay maybe that wasn't joking exactly - with her. That was a good sign right? Mai shook her head. No. There weren't signs.

There couldn't be signs.

Finding a tie, she pulled her hair up into a ponytail. Sure it didn't look too hot but it was better than before as was her face after scrubbing away any remaining bit of make up. That done, she pulled at the tie of her robe as she ventured out.

Various clacks and thuds along with a choice curse drifted in from the kitchen. She shut them out behind the bedroom door and added the rest of the ensemble to the t-shirt she'd had on, that was, an essential or two and a pair of beat-up pair of jeans that did her some justice.

From the height of dresser, the arrangement of makeup containers and bits taunted her. There wasn't enough time.

There were pieces on the kitchen floor. A few she was pretty sure were tools while the rest weren't too familiar aside from the bits of pipe.

He hadn't heard her come in…

And she'd found her assumption right, there was a tattoo alright. Just one and all black. A part of it ran along his spine and mimicked, black shapes like ligaments starting from somewhere under the hair stuck to the back of his neck and on down, from the looks of it, well past his jeans. Out across his shoulder blades it began and spread, black like jagged cuts and arranged something like wings.

It was interesting, if not a little mesmerizing, the way the shape moved with him, like there was some kind of beast there with its head hidden under her sink.

"Did you want some water or something?" she remembered her ability to frame sentences and a sense of manners all at once.

"Nah," was the loud call from under the sink and she could _hear _the grin in it, "had enough for the day."

He still had jokes… If only for the fact that he couldn't see her, Mai rolled her eyes and navigated carefully to the fridge.

"I meant a drink. Did you want anything?"

When he didn't answer, she peered around the fridge door and noticed him eyeing glass bottles on the floor over his shoulder.

"I'm good."

That said, he eased out from under the cabinet and stood up, fingers spinning a gear as the parts of a wrench in hand slowly closed. He was quiet, unnecessarily concentrated on the small task, and she finally realised it was because he hadn't thought of anything more to say.

If only to avoid an awkward silence blooming, she spoke. "Quite the ink you have there."

"Oh." The word was somewhat hollow, as if he'd expected something else. "Yeah." He added nothing more and placed the wrench down on the counter.

"You sure you didn't want anything..?"

"Nah."

And that was that.

Standing around awkwardly, watching to him work, didn't sound like such a hot idea so she'd decided not to. Of course, there wasn't any soda in the fridge. Of course. Settling for one of the several juice boxes left, she weaved back through the kitchen and on to the living room.

The tv was just loud enough. News ending and early, less popular dramas just then beginning. All the same, she'd watched the trainwreck of an episode. What's Her Face was off to a rendezvous with some guy who turned out to be dating her best friend _and_ her best friend's husband…

The remote had been across the room and she hadn't bothered getting up to change it. There was this same sort of stuff on every channel by then.

"Should be uh…" he trailed when she'd jumped in surprise.

And… he was leaning there on the entryway frame wasn't he..? Mai was doing her best to continue staring at the tv even while she wasn't seeing a single image on it.

"Should be done by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," she repeated and got up, feeling the need to cross her arms. All she could think about was what this would mean for the afternoon and evening. There was only so much money and then the idea of having to go out for dinner… "You can't get it done any sooner?"

"No, sorry," he straightened up, a hand reaching for the back of his neck. "I got a few other jobs and this needs new pipes."

Well, there was no reason for him to lie so..

"Okay." Mai stifled a sigh. "I guess I will leave everything how it is for right now."

"'Preciate it," he answered quickly and then fell into momentary silence, stretching for the words. "Again, I'm sorry. I'll have it done as soon as I can tomorrow."

And he'd packed up and left her milling about the apartment, both disappointed and strangely excited for the following day.

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><p><strong>. : End 2 : .<strong>

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><p>Feel free to follow andor review. It helps gauge interest and/or whether or not to continue!


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